Tuesday 3rd March, 2015

The government of Iceland has switched to eInvoicing, and hopes that the move will help save some ISK 500 million (about EUR 330.000) per year.

"This is an important step in the development of electronic commerce in Iceland", the government’s central Information Technology (IT) organisation, Upplýsingatækni, said, adding that this move would undoubtedly encourage companies to do the same.

A statement by Iceland’s Ministry of Finance, explains how the use of electronic invoices, including digital management of payments and storing of receipts, will make payments faster and lower costs associated with paper.

In preparation for the switch the Ministry ran a number of successful Pilots with Iceland’s hospitals that made costs savings, reduced workloads and lowered interest payments.

Electronic invoicing was one of the recommendations made by Iceland’s Government Efficiency Group, which was asked in 2013 to come up with ways to reduce costs and speed-up tendering processes for all of Iceland’s public administrations. Along with eInvoicing, the committee has also advised the adoption of electronic procurement.